Why Higher Oil Prices Haven't Saved the Solar Industry

Or maybe solar is just overhyped, overinvested, and not even close to ready for primetime, financially speaking.

Oversupply is like flood. Debt is like the rock on the swimmers in the flood. Debt free will let them survive easier. Among all the players, only YGE has achieved debt free recently.

If this sector is so hot, why does it take tax payer subsidies to keep them in business?

If this sector is so hot, why does it take tax payer subsidies to keep them in business?

NEXT BABBLE?

How many of you geniuses that invest in solar technology truly understand solar technology? So, you hype the product like it is some kind of gift from God not realising the inefficiencies of the product. You then want to force government research to make the product cost-effective not realising government-funded research is essentially a retirement job for the recipients of the funds. All of a sudden, competing products become less expensive and more attractive! Hmmmmm. Since the embedded base is geared more towards fossile fuels, where do you think the majority of the attention is going to be focused? Now, hurry up and put your 10,000 solar panels on your roof and your 250 car batteries in your basement so that you can use your solar energy for 250% of what you would pay for fossil fuels. For an average American home at the same latitude as Germany, the average payback period for a solar-powered home is 20 YEARS!!! Even with all sorts of tax credits. Pumping up solar energy stocks does nothing to improve the technology.

Interesting that China is completing on average one 5 megawatt solar power plant per week. The good thing is they keep producing clean power for 25 years without any major cost other than cleaning. USA

China is completing one five million watt solar power plant per week. The good thing is these plants produce clean power for about 25 years without further input other than cleaning. USA invented solar electric power. Germany, Japan, China are the leaders in using the technology. Solar is economically viable for large installations. Solar is also economically viable for home hot water heating virtually anywhere in USA.

Lucrative Shysters is still the game in solar. How much more stable could an industry be? Every unit has a known price and a known output whether in Germany OR Spain. Common sense has still not hit the solar industry. When the shysters leave, the solar industry will flourish and consumers benefit!

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!! What happend to little Timmy Gietner, our tax evader?

Is this an energy subsidy? The cost of the Iraq war to the taxpayer is equal to the cost of: ALL of the gasoline purchased by ALL American taxpayers for ALL of the years 2001+2002+2003+2004+2005+2006+2007 based on data in irs dot gov and doe dot gov and costofwar dot com That total to date exceeds all subsidies for all energy sources for all of history.

Interesting --- How much do you have deployed? What was your cost to install? How much of a State/Fed tax credit did you get? What is your investment payback period?

Opinions are just that, The systems are expensive to build. Alternative materials must be found and the cost will be competitive.

Too many Chinese solar companies. OK its September when will the market tank?

This guest is very good.

Thanks to State and Federal credits and rebates I can get a $41,000 solar system for my house for only $13,300. What a deal. It pays for itself if I ever sell my house, or over 10 years if I just offset my electric bills.

Solar will eventually be profitable but it needs the investment in R&D that it is now getting. We aren't making any more oil so just because it's cheaper now doesn't mean it will be in the future. Besides, everyone here is talking about photovotalic solar when solar thermal is the large scale solution. Look at what Spain has done with solar towers. Just reflect the sun's rays at a tower and heat up water to produce steam for turbines. Power all the air conditioners with solar thermal during the day and then run the fossil fuel plants at night until a decent storage system becomes available.

Gordon Johnson obviously isn't quite as stupid as Tech Ticker, since he understands that oil doesn't have muc to do with electricity prices, given the fact that WE DON'T PRODUCE ELECTRICITY USING OIL THESE DAYS. However, Gordon did link natural gas prices to oil prices and therefore assumed a positive correlation between the price of natural gas and oil and, of course, electricity. However, Gordan must be thinking of some country other than the US if he thinks we use a lot of natural gas to produce electricty. We don't. We produce 1 1/2 times more electricity using nuclear than natural gas and more than three times more energy using coal. So Gordan may be smarter than Tech Ticker (Who isn't?), but he still is pretty lacking in expertise on the energy sector. Isn't he supposed to be an energy sector analyst? What company does he work for, so I can avoid same.

MikeD, you are more than correct. Moreover, for variety of technical and economical reasons Solar is not poised to repalce oil or nat gas for the next 20 years or so. So thoese who invest in it - and in CleanTech - are writing their money on ice. It will all soon melt down. Cheers for Fears.

Whatever you come up with..until you can attach it to your own house..you will not save any money. Someone else will make money from you..green fans.